OoL digest — December 13th edition

This week in ool research we have three astrobiology papers, three in biochemistry and two in planetary science. In astrobiology, Seager presents a suite of mission concepts to study habitability on Venus, Tomita-Yokotani investigates cell survival during the Tanpopo ISS mission, and Yiğit discusses atmospheric escapes that affected Mars’ habitability. In biochemistry, Fraccia investigates light-responsive reactive coacervates as a route to the non-enzymatic synthesis of polynucleotides, Sauer discusses the formation of the peptide world on early Earth, and Wimmer analyzes the energetics of LUCA. Finally, in planetary science Havig analyzes the elemental composition of hot spring biocumulus, and Mojzsis discusses the ingredients of a rocky planet in the context of geoastronomy. Happy reading!

Astrobiology

Venus Life Finder Mission Study – Seager et al. – preprint

Investigation of Nostoc sp. HK-01, Cell Survival over Three Years during the Tanpopo Mission – Tomita-Yokotani et al. – Astrobiology

Martian water escape and internal waves – Yiğit – Science


Biochemistry

Non-enzymatic oligonucleotide ligation in photoswitchable coacervate protocells sustains compartment-content coupling – Fraccia et al. – preprint

From amino acid mixtures to peptides in liquid sulphur dioxide on early Earth – Sauer et al. – Nature Communications

Energy at Origins: Favorable Thermodynamics of Biosynthetic Reactions in the Last Universal Common Ancestor (LUCA) – Wimmer et al. – Frontiers in Microbiology


Planetary Science

Hot Spring Microbial Community Elemental Composition: Hot Spring and Soil Inputs, and the Transition from Biocumulus to Siliceous Sinter – Havig et al. – Astrobiology

Geoastronomy: Rocky planets as the Lavosier-Lomonosov Bridge from the non-living to the living world – Mojzsis – preprint